


Lex's First September 1st

by RobinWritesChirps



Series: Where everything is magi-cool (StarKid Hogwarts AU) [2]
Category: Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Background Paul/Emma, Background tom/becky, Coming of Age, First Meetings, Gen, Hogwarts, Hogwarts First Year, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29927640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: On the first of September, Lex woke long before an alarm she had already set at the crack of dawn, incapable of sleeping a moment more. She stared at the ceiling of the rundown closet of an apartment she still called home, every cell of her poor body shaky with the anticipation yet silly afraid to set herself into motion. Had this all been an elaborate prank played on her? She knew, was convinced at her core that this whole Hogwarts business had to be true.Lex's first day at Hogwarts or, finally she finds a place where she belongs.
Relationships: Becky Barnes & Lex Foster, Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Lex Foster & Emma Perkins, Lex Foster & Tom Houston
Series: Where everything is magi-cool (StarKid Hogwarts AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2144154
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Lex's First September 1st

**Author's Note:**

> Even though it's not specified and I tried not to clutter the text with it too much for fear of it being unreadable, please take note as you read that Lex has the thickest Cockney accent you've ever heard in your life, Becky speaks quite posh whereas Tom is like from rural Yorkshire. This won't matter in any way but it is the author's intent.

On the first of September, Lex woke long before an alarm she had already set at the crack of dawn, incapable of sleeping a moment more. She stared at the ceiling of the rundown closet of an apartment she still called home, every cell of her poor body shaky with the anticipation yet silly afraid to set herself into motion. Had this all been an elaborate prank played on her? She knew, was convinced at her core that this whole Hogwarts business _had_ to be true. Pamela Foster would never put any effort into such a layered lie, involve so many people in the affair of tricking her elder daughter into believing in happiness for once. She hardly had any care for the matters of the daily life, so why should she go out of her way to steal from Lex a taste of the extraordinary? Besides, there was no money to pay for the prank. There was never any money.

It was all real and true, there was no way it couldn't be. Lex had read the letter, she had seen Diagon Alley, she had met Professor Ja'far al-Barmaki who had not left her thoughts since. He had explained magic to her, or at least the rudiments of it before taking her out for a shopping trip which had settled the deal and made her truly believe him. It had all been so very real right before her eyes, but that had been five weeks ago too and the only proof she had left of it was the truck filled to the brim with everything magical and the owl now hooting merrily in his cage. He had been as antsy as his young new owner all August.

"You're gonna have a lo' of owl mates at Hogwarts too, huh?" She whispered. "Be'er than stuck in here."

Next to her on the bed the three Fosters had shared for years, her mum was still fast asleep. She had come home late last night as she did every night. A few years ago, she had stopped giving excuses and Lex had stopped asking for them. She had stopped believing her mother was the most wonderful person in the world and only this summer did she realize how true this was: there was a whole life far beyond what Lex had always known and it was _truly_ splendid. Nothing about this shabby apartment in greater London could keep her here when a much better destiny awaited.

Her bare feet hit the ground as quietly as she could but Hannah had always had a keen ear for all shuffling around and she too sat up with a big yawn, stretching her arms. She looked so small even now, like a little creature kneeling between the covers and staring at Lex across the room.

"Are you gone yet?"

Lex smiled. She reached behind blindly and Hannah rubbed her eyes with the sudden indirect light of the bathroom adjacent. She was wearing one of Lex's old t-shirts — Lex had promised her her old Hogwarts robes in a few years when she would grow out of them, though they weren't yet sure if Hannah would need them for the same school herself. The headmaster had said that strange things tended to happen around young wizards and witches, but Hannah had hardly left Lex's side in the six years of her life. There was no saying which bizarre occurrences belonged to the younger child rather than her sister. Perhaps this would have to be the only positive about leaving her here in England. Lex had begged the universe for this, to let her sister have the same magical destiny as her.

"Not yet," she whispered back. "Just washing up a li'le. I'll be gone soon, but you should catch your sleep, Banana. I'll wake you up to say goodbye."

Hannah shook her head. In two long strides, she joined Lex in the bathroom. Mum had forgotten to pay for water again and there was only the large plastic jug she had stolen from the corner store but Lex rubbed her face so thoroughly with a wet washcloth it was as clean as it had ever been, even red and puffy. She rubbed Hannah's too, who giggled softly under the assault till they found themselves laughing together like little girls, then smiling, and then not smiling much. Hannah sighed in that mournful way of hers Lex knew by heart.

"You're going to be good for me while I'm gone?"

"Uh huh," Hannah nodded.

Lex played with the girl's long hair. She had taught her how to do her own pigtails when Hannah had started school last year and since then, it was all she ever wanted to do with it. Even for sleep, she wore it that way. Lex wondered if she herself might do the same with hers up there in Hogwarts just for a sense of home. Perhaps there was a special way that witches did their hair that she did not know about yet.

"Don't let Mum boss you around too much, okay?"

"She doesn't do that," Hannah replied. "She just sleeps and goes out."

Lex bit her lip. In the living room, which was their bedroom, the alarm clock rung and was silenced with a bang by their charming mother who let out a few curse words as well. Lex finished washing up as fast as she could.

"I'll send you le'ers, okay?" She said as she pulled on the trunk's handle with all her meager strength. "Won't that be brilliant? A big owl comin' to see just you. I think Rito likes you, he'll be happy to give you news."

"Uh huh," Hannah replied. "Yeah."

She heard Rito ruffle his feathers with a joyful hoot — Pamela groaned. His cage was yet another thing to carry with her to King's Cross. If she'd had money, she would have gone there in a cab but Lex did not, never had. Even in Diagon Alley, she had been ashamed to let the headmaster cover all expenses with those strange wizard coins she had never seen before. He had promised her that the school kept special funds for such students as her who needed the help, Muggleborn or not, but she had still felt the weight of a sensation she knew all too well, that of not being enough. Hopefully, she would prove it wrong over the next seven years. She had the bite for it all.

"Well, this is goodbye," she said and hugged her sister tight. "Love you, Banana."

Hannah never said the words back, but every time she held Lexi so close and clung for a moment too long, Lex felt the reply just as if it had been said out loud. After a pat on her mother's head who mumbled her goodbyes in a voice slurred by sleep, Lex hauled her trunk and her owl outside and set herself out to Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.

The morning was a trickle of firsts before she had so much as caught sight of another peer witch or wizard. The first time she took the underground all on her own, all the more all the way to the centre of the city. The first time she traveled without family. The first time she did something for her own future, the first time she kept such a big secret. Rito was attracting stares everywhere she went but she stared right back and petted him through the cage. Both of them stood out, she knew. She had put on her witch's robes already and although she felt a little silly in them, out of place, she knew she was heading to the only place in the world where she would eventually fit right in.

"First year?" A soft voice startled her when she reached platform 9 and 10 of King's Cross Station. She had arrived far too early and there was hardly anyone else in sight than the business crowd on their way to work, but as soon as she turned around she knew at once the older girl was another student from Hogwarts. The outfit was certainly a clue. She nodded.

"I'm Becky," the girl said, holding up a hand to give Lex a warm handshake. "Becky Barnes, I'm the Head Girl at Hogwarts. I'm looking for first years to show them to the platform in case they don't know the way. I'll..."

In a world of everything dull and tern and Muggle, Becky Barnes stood out like a flame burning as bright as her warm smile when she spoke. She had hair as red as a carrot, almost as red as the cuffs of her sleeves and the ribbed edge of her collar, clashing against a pristine pitch black set of robes. Her ponytail was impeccably tight and there wasn't a wrinkle on her outfit, nor a speck of dust of the badge on her chest announcing her title of Head Girl.

"I _do_ know the way," Lex cut her. The headmaster had made a point of giving a thorough explanation of it and she was impatient to be done with it as was. "You just run into the wall and hocus pocus, righ'?"

Becky seemed surprised and Lex wondered how many students, like her, had no education of the magic world for her to stand vigil so. She took a step to the side to point Lex the exact spot, a wall of bricks that had seen better days. Rito let out a small plaintive hoot but Lex ignored him — she was not afraid of this. She was not afraid of anything.

"It doesn't hurt," Becky promised. "You can't even feel it. Close your eyes if you want."

Lex bit her tongue, kept her eyes wide open and ran. Even so she was blinded and after a crash that never came, she found herself lost in a cloud of smoke she slowly began to see through. Behind her, the same plain brick wall as on the other side, but she had forgotten all about King's Cross already. The Hogwarts Express was _sumptuous_. Even so early, its engine was roaring loud and proud and the wagons stood there as red as red could be. Lex had never seen anything more wonderful if it had not been for the students. It was a sparse crowd — she had, after all, arrived way before the time written on her ticket — but every single person on Platform 9 and 3/4 was everything she had ever wanted. A sea of black robes and hats matching hers, but every one of them wholly unique, special. Siblings bickering, younger witches and wizards chasing each other and playing with fantastic pets all more colorful than the next, eager beavers revising all sorts of spell books and merry friends reuniting after two months apart, chatting here and there as they casually took all the time in the world to board this superb train Lex could not wait to set foot in. All of them were waiting here the same as her. All of them were where she belonged.

"Your first September 1st, huh?"

Lex startled — she had not noticed that Becky had gone through the platform wall behind her. She nodded. There would have been a million things to say but she had never been too good at composition and nothing she could say would do justice to the beauty of what she felt. It was better just to feel it on the inside.

"I never even knew I was a witch," she said wistfully, "And now I don't know if I can ever be anything else."

Becky smiled at her and patted her shoulder. Lex should have shrugged her away, for Pamela had taught her all of her life never to accept pity, but it didn't seem wrong in this moment. Right now, she was as connected to this kind girl she didn't know as to every other person boarding to Hogwarts, every relative watching them go. She was a witch, dammit, and she deserved to be part of this.

"We'll get you a nice seat inside the train with the others," Becky said, "And when you're sorted I'll go fetch the other first years. Does that sound nice?"

Lex had the sensation of Becky treating her somewhat like a younger child than she really was, but she let it slide, for nothing at all could be spoiling this moment.

"Yeah," she sighed. "That sounds brilliant."

Becky glanced around the platform and called out to a pair of older students. The girl's cuffs and collar were as vermillion as Becky's, as the train, as the blush on the boy's cheeks she had been talking to. His uniform was marked with blue instead and Lex racked her brain to try and remember what Professor al-Barmaki might have said about this. It had been so much information to take in at once she could not remember what it meant, though it was at the tip of her tongue.

"Emma," Becky asked with an overly sweet tone one might use asking for a big favour, "Hi, Paul. Emma, give me a hand, will you? First year student here."

Emma turned with a frown and looked Lex up and down. Lex stared right back, incapable of crumbling into self-consciousness even under such a fierce gaze. Not today. After a short moment, though, Emma gave a shrug and made to help Becky with Lex's trunk.

"No," she told Becky, "No, I'll carry i' with her, it's okay. You can just go back to King's Cross, I'll be fine, ta."

Becky's face fell slightly before she made herself smile again and tugged at her neat black robes as if disappointed. Lex felt a pang of something unknown at the realization that someone could want to help her so much. She was not used to that at all.

"Well," she said with a polite nod, "Welcome to Hogwarts, then..."

"Lex," Lex completed.

"Welcome home, Lex."

She walked away and disappeared back into the wall — Lex told herself she would never become used to this awe she felt at every sign of magic. Even the shopping trip in Diagon Alley last month had taken much longer than it should have, for she had been pausing wherever her fancy hit to ask the headmaster questions about everything in sight that was unusual or interesting. She had never thought she would be one for caring so much about learning, yet now that she was here, she wanted to seep it all in, every last drop till she drowned with magical knowledge. Emma cleared her throat and Lex remembered that there was a heavy trunk to carry inside — though she had made it so far and probably could have made it the whole way aboard, to the school if must be, Lex gladly took the extra pair of hands.

"Pain in the ass, right?" Emma said, smirking. "I hate Becky Barnes."

"I hate her too!" Paul hurried to say with an awkward chuckle. "She's..."

Lex frowned, not quite sure if she had missed something obvious. Perhaps this too had a different meaning in the realm of magic, another sort of courtesies she didn't yet know about. Even in the Muggle world, that had not been her forte.

"She seemed sor' of nice," she said hesitantly as Emma nodded her towards the closest empty compartment inside the Hogwarts Express.

Emma laughed. The luggage was pushed to the open storage under the seats where another one already laid marked Emma G. Perkins in old gold-plated letters. There was a graving next to the name, a lion on a shield of gold and red. _Gryffindor_. Lex remembered a little now.

"Merlin, no," she said. "That's the trap. You'll change your mind the first time she gives you detention for just one miserable firework inside the Great Hall."

"I think it wasn't so much the fireworks," Paul said pointedly, "And more the fact that her robes caught fire because of it."

Emma grinned victoriously. She and Paul had taken the window seats and sat as comfortably as if they had been in their own homes, their legs stretched before them touching together a little, a fact neither of them seemed to acknowledge yet must have been very aware of.

"That'll teach her to take better care of her things, huh? And then she has the nerve to scold me when my robes are on backwards..."

Lex took in without speaking the conversation soon flowing smoothly between the two of them as if she had not even been here, but for the occasional glances her way. She was desperately trying to remember more details of the conversation she had had with the headmaster that day, but there was so only so much she could cram into her brain without it overflowing. Of course, she could have read more of the books piled high inside her trunk, but then Lex had never been much of a reader and she was overall more excited to see magic before her eyes than to read about it in the old pages of a book.

After what seemed like an eternity of sitting here on the cushy seat of the train, it finally set itself into motion with a loud rumbling sound taking over the entire wagon. The ground under her feet started to tremble as the train first slowly, then faster and faster began to leave London. Very soon, she could see landscapes of fields and the rare farm or cottage plopped in between them outside the windows and a weight lifted from her. Another step closer to Hogwarts, to the place she was meant to be. Another less reason to doubt.

Paul and Emma were deep in conversation, engrossed with one another. It was not clear to Lex if they were going out, as the affection between them seemed to toy the line dangerously close at all times, but never to cross it outright. Maybe she should have found another compartment to let them make that cut for themselves. She wondered why she should care. Briefly, she thought of Becky Barnes and wondered how many other first years she had rescued from the big Muggle world of the train station. She wondered how many had not needed her help at all, surrounded by loving families of magical parents.

"Now that Spankoffski has left the school, Slytherin is gonna be all in our faces about the Cup, I can feel it. He was always the one who made them lose all those points. You know, I don't mind losing to Gryffindor, but I'd let myself drown in the lake before I see them win..."

"What's Gryffindor?" She asked suddenly, interrupting a very animated conversation which had thus far been led mostly by Paul, who trailed off with a sheepish pout.

"Oh," Emma said, teasing, "You're _that_ kind of first year."

Lex felt in herself the pang of shame she had known all these years, being _that_ kind of girl from _that_ kind of a family living in _that_ kind of neighbourhood. It was nothing she was not used to, but nothing she took pride in either.

"Is tha' a problem?" She frowned.

Emma must have noticed her mistake, because she answered immediately and kindly.

"No," she said in earnest. "It doesn't matter at all."

She tried to smile.

"Gryffindor is one of the four houses of the school. You know, people you live with, sit with, you have classes together. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. There's a cup to win every year that goes to the house that earned the most points, Ravenclaw wins most of the time because the headmaster was from Ravenclaw, but..."

"That's not true at all," Paul retorted and Lex saw that Emma was smirking as though the reaction had been her purpose in the first place. "Al-Barmaki is very fair. Besides, _you_ won last year."

"Well, Mr Nitpick, spoken like a true Ravenclaw," Emma told him with a wink. She turned to Lex again. "No but seriously, it's so okay to not know anything. Falcon over here will tell you you should want to know everything," she said before Paul had a chance to say precisely that, by the look on his face, "But really what matters is to have a good time. Lots of first years don't know anything about anything before Hogwarts. It's not a big deal."

Lex bit her tongue and hoped that was the case.

The train rode all day up and up Great Britain through all sorts of landscapes Lex had only ever seen in pictures at school. She had never really left her little home just outside of London and she could not have imagined a better escape ticket than Hogwarts. Still, as the day went on, a numb sense of anxiety began to take root within herself and if she had been quiet before, she was fully silent for the last stretch of the afternoon. Outside the compartment, other students were walking to and fro, chatting excitedly, but as Paul and Emma seemed content with just each other's company, Lex made no effort either to mingle for the present. She petted Rito through the cage and waited.

It was dark outside by the time they arrived and Lex squinted and looked around. She was instructed to leave her trunk there inside the train, which was just as well to her, and she climbed off the train on very shaky legs. She thought of Hannah home alone and braced herself to be brave for the both of them.

"FIRST YEARS!" A young man was shouting and she remembered Becky Barnes at King's Cross — how different the call when one was among Muggles and when one wasn't. "FIRST YEAR STUDENTS, THIS WAY!"

Lex obediently followed the bearded man to a narrow path leading to a dock where dozens of little boats were waiting for them. He was wearing a mole skin coat with many pockets in the most incongruous places, some round with being filled up, some empty. A lantern was brightening up his kind smile.

"Evening," the man said, "And welcome to Hogwarts. I'm Tom Houston, apprentice Keeper of Keys and Grounds this year and I'll be sending you to the castle before a professor takes over. Now, hop on board, no more than four per boat or you'll drown, lads."

The students nearly trampled each other in their hurry to find a seat aboard the boats. Lex was a little more cautious — she had never set foot on a boat and had hoped to keep it that way. By the time she was ready, the only seat she could spot was with Tom Houston himself, who scooted to the side to let her on.

"Hold tight!" He shouted to all the other first years and herself. "We're going to Hogwarts!"

Without any evident way of propelling themselves, the boats suddenly set into motion on waters as dark at the sky and Lex tucked her hands under her butt to keep them safe. Tom's eyes narrowed on the seated crowd, making sure none of them were being any sort of reckless, and Lex wondered how Emma's first boat ride to Hogwarts might have unfolded. Maybe she would have to ask her some day. Certainly not the same as Becky Barnes's.

"First time at Hogwarts, lass?"

Lex turned to Tom to look up at him. He was oddly young for such a job, as if he had only left the school not long ago at all himself.

"It's me first time riding the first years across, too," he said, as though he could read her thoughts. She smiled despite herself. "I'd missed this lake, dammit. Oh, shit, I shouldn't curse in front of first years..."

Lex thought of her mum and smiled a little more sadly.

"Sherman was thinking of retiring and I put in me application to become his apprentice for a year or two before taking over. That same day, Ja'far al-Barmaki invites me in his office to discuss the terms and I'm hired, can you believe that? But anyways, I'm rambling. Your name?"

"Alexandra Foster," she said. "Lex."

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Lex."

It was as though he was even more excited than her. The entire ride, he sat there with the broadest smile she had ever seen and she felt comfortable around him. He made little conversation after the first outburst, but Lex liked it just that way. When the boats took a sharp turn and the castle came into view, she gasped like all the others and Tom huffed contentedly. He showed her a few sights in the distance, some notable towers or buildings, and Lex made a mental note of exploring them all before the next day was over.

"Mr Houston," she asked before they were to disembark, "What house were you in when you were a student?"

Tom sighed out with mirth. He seemed lost in excellent memories for a brief moment but shook himself out of it on his own.

"Well, now, you don't need to worry yerself about that, lass," he told her. "Hufflepuff, but all houses are as good as any. When it's your house, it's your home, and the rest don't matter much, ya know?"

Lex bit her tongue and nodded. Becky Barnes and Emma Perkins in Gryffindor, Paul Matthews in Ravenclaw, Tom Houston in Hufflepuff. Certainly it did seem that there could be friends in more than one place. Perhaps even all of them like he said. Once the boats docked at a small underground harbor and dozens of students climbed off in a tangled crowd of excitement, Tom made the best attempt at creating some order as he could — not much — and led them up a flight of stairs into the castle. Lex passed her fingers on the old stones and found them much warmer than she had anticipated. Every few steps, torches were lighting up the way.

They were greeted by a handsome blonde witch by the name of Linda Monroe who repeated what Lex had heard several times yet, the equal value of all houses they were to be sorted in. It seemed to her that Professor Monroe leaned somewhat towards the house of Slytherin, which she had admitted to be the head of, but within herself Lex made a whole other choice when the virtues of all houses were presented to her. She could only hope the sorting would favor her preference.

The Great Hall was the most miraculous thing she had seen in her life. She nearly stumbled in her step for looking up at it and not at where she was going, but it was just too bloody _magic_. Linda Monroe put down a ratty old hat on a stool in front of the professors' table and Lex, who was going from one surprise to the next, could not hold in a gasp when the hat began to sing. Around her, every student, first year or not, was as entranced as she was. After the song singing the praises of every house but especially of the hat itself, the sorting ceremony could start.

The first student (al-Barmaki, Jasmine who, by the look on the headmaster's face as he clapped louder than anyone in attendance, must have been of close relation) was sorted with a resounding and very quick shout to _GRYFFINDOR_. Lex watched with an odd twist of envy as she was welcomed at the table by a grinning Becky Barnes hurrying to congratulate her, only to be joined a brief moment later by Blim, Emily, who was flushed red with pride.

"Chastity, Grace."

The hat took a minute or two to make up its mind.

" _HUFFLEPUFF_!" It shouted eventually and Tom Houston, who had joined the professors' table late, clapped with all his heart.

Lex watched the parade of every student on the list called out one by one by a very smug Linda Monroe who only ever uttered congratulations when one of them joined her own house. Lex wondered what class the lady taught. Whatever it was, she was certain that it would be her least favorite of all.

"Foster, Alexandra."

Lex pushed past a few students briskly so as not to give herself the chance to feel nervous. She shoved the hat fast on her head and her eyes were covered with it, so large it was for her frame. A strange voice began to whisper against her ear and she startled, but there was nothing unfriendly about the words or the tone.

" _Ah, yes, I see someone's made up her mind already, haven't we, Lex?_ "

_And what about it?_ She thought with a frown. She was absolutely certain that she had not said a thing, yet the hat answered her as naturally as if they were two friends having a chat.

" _It's not that I don't see your point, it's really not... You're clever, my young friend, and witty as any. Surely, you've thought about Ravenclaw?_ "

She grimaced and the Sorting Hat, if this was possible too at Hogwarts, burst out laughing in her ear.

" _Only a jest, of course. I see your fire, young one. Make sure to fan it. GRYFFINDOR!_ "

The hall burst into applause and briefly, Lex's eyes caught with the headmaster's who smiled at her broadly, but Ja'far al-Barmaki nodded her towards the table now cheering for her to join and Lex nearly ran to take a seat at the table.

"Hi, Lex!" Becky told her, all giddy with the several new first years sitting here around her. She seemed to have sat at the edge on purpose for this. "I thought I might see you with us tonight."

The sorting ceremony went on until the last student (Woodward, Alice) was welcomed with thundering applause to _RAVENCLAW_ and slowly, the hall settled into some sort of busy quiet. Before she could realize, Lex was now surrounded with more food than she had ever seen in her life at once and she took a pick of everything, shoveling forkfuls crudely down her mouth as if she had never feasted before in her life. And in truth, she had not.

Wherever she looked, she was filled with wonder and joy. In the air of the Great Hall hung thick candles illuminating the night almost as bright as the stars in the sky above them — Jasmine, who loved to make known what she knew by the privilege of living in Hogsmeade, told her that the ceiling was enchanted and not truly open sky. This made the sight all the more wonderful to Lex, who kept glancing up periodically to see the heaven change from time to time, dark greens and blues and blacks. The view was sometimes broken by the passing of ghosts, actual ghosts floating about and making conversation with the students and staff alike.

Lex made fast acquaintance with the other students she was supposed to share a life with for the next seven years. Becky made effort to introduce herself to everyone new at the table and to get to know them better, though more than once Lex caught her waving and smiling at Tom Houston across the hall distractedly. Emma, who passed by on her way to the Ravenclaw table, whispered in Lex's ear that the two of them had been engaged since before the summer. She seemed disgusted by the idea and mussed Lex's hair as she walked away.

"Welcome to another magical year at Hogwarts!" The headmaster said in a friendly loud voice when the feast was dwindling down lazily, nearly at an end. "I welcome you all!"

There was a short speech Lex hardly caught a word of — she had eaten too much and her body had given up on her before she had reached her future bed. She was certain it must have been amazing, though, for everyone stared at him with awe. There was some singing and then, with the cacophony of a shared goodnight, the hall began to empty towards each house's respective dormitories.

"Slytherin, this way," a prefect shouted, gathering his small flock of first years.

"Gryffindors, we're going to the common room, come this way please!"

Becky and a handful of prefects led the way to the Gryffindor Tower and made sure for each student to remember the password perfectly on their way in. The Fat Lady, they were told, was peculiar about that. In the common room, students of all ages began to pile up in deep comfortable-looking settees and chairs but Lex was too tired to linger much longer. Under Becky's directions, she climbed up the staircase to find the first years' girls dormitory. Her trunk was right there next to the four poster bed marked with her name. _Lex Foster._ A Gryffindor. Rito's cage laid empty next to it too and Jasmine explained to her that all owls were lodged at the same place rather than kept in the dormitories. Lex smiled and, only taking off her shoes and socks, threw herself onto her bed which she found infinitely more comfortable than she had dared to hope.

"I'm _so_ happy I didn't get Ravenclaw!" Jasmine was telling Emily. "Mummy and daddy were both in it, you know, but I want to make my own name here. What house were your parents in?"

Emily chuckled awkwardly. Her bed was just next to Lex's. Each of them were bigger than the double mattress Lex had shared with her mother and sister back in London. She would have to write to Hannah about this, but she would do it in the morning. For now, she was incapable of so much as lifting a finger.

"My parents don't have magic, but Grandpa says Grandma Eleanor left him for a ghoul, so maybe there's that..."

"Oh, well, these things can skip generations. It happens. Oh, this is gonna be the best year ever! Can't you feel it?"

Lex grinned into her pillow. Sluggishly, she pulled on the curtains of her bed to better enjoy the warmth and tugged the covers over herself. Jasmine might be a touch too hyped for her this late at night, but she was right. It had barely even started, but already Lex could tell that this year was going to be totally awesome.

**Author's Note:**

> Not currently taking any criticism for my sorting of any character although I am 100% open to any suggestion of other Hogwarts AUs I could write for Starkid characters!


End file.
